Question: How in the world did Christ’s radical, loving, and egalitarian teachings end up as the bedrock of conservative, White-centric, and oppressive ‘evangelical Christianity’?
Answer: They didn’t — not really. Rather, a perverted, distorted version of ‘Christianity’ took their place — one which kept the outer forms of worship, like the Bible and prayer, but hollowed out and rejected Christ’s actual teachings.
That’s right. Most of today’s ‘Christians’ actively ignore, reject, or gloss over Christ’s real, fundamental teachings — while giving them constant lip service. Even worse, they believe they’re automatically ‘saved’ and bound for Heaven… just because they’ve (supposedly) ‘accepted Christ into their heart.’
But I’ve got news for them: Just saying you’re a follower of Christ doesn’t mean a thing if you are a hateful, bigoted, judgmental, cruel, and mean-spirited person. Just saying you’re a ‘good Christian’ doesn’t make you one, especially if you embody all the negative traits I just listed.
Heck, I’m not even a Christian, but I know and practice Christ’s teachings far more than many modern ‘Christians.’
I’m thinking of well-known core teachings like “Judge not, lest ye be judged” and “By their fruits shall ye know them.” Based on these two famous Bible verses, alone, today’s evangelical Christianity is a miserable failure — since it actively encourages bigotry and intense judgment and seeks to oppress non-Whites and non-Christians alike.
And now — again — it’s even oppressing women in general.
And unbelievably… many evangelical ‘Christians’ have elevated a cruel, racist dictator-wannabe, Donald Trump, to the level of Christ himself: a ‘savior’ anointed by God to ‘save America’!
Jesus would not be pleased — to put it mildly. He had little patience for hateful hypocrites and fools.
The core teaching of the ‘Golden Rule’
I’m not going to delve into the sordid history of evangelical Christianity’s long descent into cruelty, negativity, and apostasy. My purpose here is to examine several core teachings of Christ and see where or how they fit into today’s politics and social activism.
Perhaps his foremost core teaching is the famed ‘Golden Rule’: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This core teaching is found not only in Christianity but in every major religion. Why? Well, this one teaching, diligently applied, has the potential to totally transform human life and our ways of relating to each other.
The simple admonition ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ poses the ultimate challenge for our prideful, preening ego-selves that strut, compete, compare, and lord it over others. Our egoic tendencies are often aggressive, selfish, judgmental, and uncaring — and frequently eclipse our compassionate, empathetic, and cooperative responsiveness.
Of course, it was exactly these ego-driven tendencies and issues that Jesus sought to address with this simple admonition. But as any thoughtful, somewhat self-aware person knows, truly following this teaching and consistently acting on it can be quite difficult.
It’s incredibly easy to repeat this core admonition by rote, and say we believe its message — as most “Christians’ do — but it’s another thing entirely to take it to heart and diligently practice it. That takes work — hard, challenging ‘inner work’ and persistent outer efforts as well.
Most ‘Christians’ don’t even TRY to follow Jesus’ teachings
So, how does evangelical ‘Christianity’ stack up in this area? Very, very poorly. Today’s ‘followers of Christ’ seem to be incredibly lazy, prideful, and unwilling to do the hard work needed to really ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ In general, they give it plenty of lip service and praise the concept — but then turn right around and totally ignore it.
Yes, these ‘Christians’ couldn’t care less about truly following Jesus’ core teaching.
Worse, their attitudes and actions show that they are not only not following Jesus’ teachings, but are actively doing the exact opposite!
Especially in today’s highly-charged, super-partisan atmosphere, many evangelical churches have embraced so-called ‘conservative’ values like bigotry, hate, misogyny, White supremacy, and endless harsh judgment. It’s truly the exact opposite of the acceptance, compassion, and active love Jesus embodied and tried to teach to others.
‘By their fruits shall ye know them.’ And in this case… their collective ‘fruits’ are deeply UNloving and rotten to the core.
Which Americans ARE following Christ’s teachings?
Given that American Christians have almost totally abdicated their responsibilities as true followers of Christ and have turned his teachings upside-down and inside-out — is there any group or faction that IS following and trying to embody his vital teachings?
If we look again at that list of attributes that Jesus embodied and sought to model and teach — love, acceptance, and compassion, or ‘love-in-action’ — it’s crystal clear that today’s liberals and ‘progressives’ embody these qualities far more than most conservatives and right-leaning ‘Christians.’ While the right wing generally seeks to limit the freedom and opportunities of non-Whites and often pushes for oppressive laws and restrictions on them — and on women — the left usually pushes for the opposite.
In general, the political left wants to increase ALL people’s freedom and opportunity, create a more egalitarian and responsive society, and respect and value the contributions of all races, sexes, and ethnic groups.
If we look for Christ’s teachings ‘in action’ in our society, we’ll find them primarily in the activities of the liberal, progressive left — and usually not in the policies and actions of the right and ‘conservatives.’ And today, with the hateful, racist far-right in ascendance and an immigrant-bashing, divisive Trump regime looming, the hate, intolerance, and open oppression of women and minorities are ramping up fast in the U.S.
Sacred anger and activism are essential
If ever we needed to honor and follow Christ’s core teachings, now is the time. If ever following Christ’s teachings was absolutely critical, it’s today.
But instead, much of our nation is moving fast in the opposite direction.
If Christ were alive today, he’d undoubtedly be repulsed and horrified by what’s happening in our ‘modern’ (no, backward and hateful) United States. Jesus would have lashed out — big time — at all the ego-driven hypocrites and their hateful, oppressive attitudes and actions. “Let he who is without sin among you, cast the first stone.”
Remember how he overturned the stalls of the moneychangers in the Temple courtyard? Jesus knew how and when to unleash his fiery ‘sacred anger’ — and he did so many times. And if he was alive today, I’m sure he’d strive with all his might and all his heart to reach, shake up, and transform as many conservatives and ‘Christians’ as he possibly could.
Yes, in today’s United States, I’m positive Jesus would have been a radical ‘leftie’ and ‘progressive.’ That’s the only major group today that even tries to honor and realize his teachings.
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This post was previously published on ILLUMINATION and is republished on Medium.
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I consider myself a Christ follower/someone I am continually trying to know better (not unlike my wife and children) and the fact that this post even exists is a sad testament that the relationship is not going well for many who know or report to know him OR that it is not being communicated effectively of what that relationship is like. I think that, no matter what side of the political spectrum, the bottom line is that all people have inherent value and for those who know Christ, that value should be protected in ALL ways possible.